


With Friends Like These

by trashofthethings



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Canon-Compliant, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony Stark-centric, really inconsistently written tbh, siberia is cold, tony thinks about friendships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-05
Updated: 2018-01-05
Packaged: 2019-02-28 15:46:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13274700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trashofthethings/pseuds/trashofthethings
Summary: Tony Stark is left alone in Siberia at the end of his fight with Captain America. It's moments like these that really make a person think about who his real friends are.Or, multiple events in Civil War cause Tony to reflect a little on who his real friends are, who they aren't, and that he has a place with the right people.





	With Friends Like These

Cold. Biting cold. Empty cold. It surrounded Tony, but didn’t penetrate- his entire body was hot and throbbing with pain. He could feel the blood slowly trickle down his face, so slowly it itched. He tasted it, metallic and burning his mouth and throat. Tony leaned to the side and spit, but the bitter taste lingered on his tongue and made him cringe. His breaths were deep, but shaky and ragged. Each time his lungs filled, it made his chest ache. The longer he sat, the more he felt the cold around him in the open, cement room. It creeped into his bones and added to his absolute exhaustion. Sitting up against a pillar, Tony cradled his left arm. He ground his teeth at the pain. God, that arm. It felt numb yet it throbbed at the same time, and he knew he had to get it back into the sling. He’d had enough problems with that arm as it was. He shouldn’t have fought with it at all.

He shouldn’t have _fought_ at all.

As Tony calmed down, his blinding anger subsided, leaving him drained and with a black, ugly feeling creeping into his stomach and spreading.

_God, Tony, you did it again._

Again, he let his personal thoughts, his emotions, get in the way. Again, he hurt someone, and Tony knew Bucky’s bloody face would stick in his head for a long time. Again, he _royally_ screwed up. Just add it to the list, and add another pound to the ton of guilt that already weighed on his shoulders. He deserved it, anyway.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y.?” Tony rasped, hoping the damage done to the suit wasn’t enough to shut down all systems.

“Yes?” the A.I answered, to Tony’s relief.

“Do we have enough power to make it out of here?” he asked, voice raw and cracking.

“Yes, enough to make it out and fall to the ground after ten minutes. Did you really ask?” the sassy A.I retorted. Tony blinked hard.

“Not the time, F.R.I.D.A.Y. Just call me a helicopter,” he said.

“Of course, Mr. Stark,” F.R.I.D.A.Y answered, gentler this time. Tony tiredly nodded, letting out another breath. Sometimes, F.R.I.D.A.Y. felt like more of a friend than actual humans who claimed to be such. With that poignant thought, Tony waited for rescue as the cold pressed in more and more. Although, rescue would take more than a helicopter, and it would take more than sitting inside with a cup of coffee to make the cold go away.

 

Tony’s first stop was a hospital in Germany, but not for himself.

“James Rhodes. I’m here to visit him, that is. Can I see him?” Tony, tripping over his words, said to the woman working the front desk. She gave the bloodied, beaten, and frantic Tony a skeptical once over, but granted him a visitor’s pass. Rhodey gave him the same once over upon seeing him in the hospital room doorway, albeit with more concern.

“Tony, what did you do?” was all Rhodey could manage as far as a reaction. Tony smirked bitterly.

“Something I’ll probably regret.” He slowly walked further into the room and sat in a chair next to Rhodey’s bed. “How’re you holding up?”

“For being paralyzed from the waist down? Not too bad.” Both men chuckled, but there was a profound sadness beneath it that neither cared to acknowledge. “How about you?” Rhodey continued. “You sure you don’t need to check yourself in?” he half-joked.

“I’ve seen better days, that’s for sure,” Tony said, and that small, bitter smirk was back, “but I’ll be fine.”

“And so will I. Well, relatively.” That’s when Tony got to thinking. He could fix this. He could help. How could he help?

“Yeah, you will, Rhodey,” Tony said, his mind clearly already on the next step as he stood up from the chair.

“I know that look, Tone. You’re planning something. You’re not getting yourself into trouble again, are you?” Rhodey said, his tone teasing.

“Not this time, Rhodes.”

“Alright, man, if you say so. And clean your face up. It’s a bad look if the tabloids catch you with dried blood all over your face,” Rhodey said, smiling at Tony, who grinned back. It was the first time he’d really smiled in at least a week.

“Still looking out for me, even from a hospital bed,” Tony said, shaking his head.

“If I don’t, who will?” Rhodey remarked. “Hey, it’s what friends are for.”

 

The Tower was too big to feel so empty. That’s what Tony had taken to calling it now: The Tower. The big STARK had been replaced years ago by that iconic Avengers ‘A’, and Stark Tower was a thing of the past until he repurposed the compound and used the Tower for Stark Industries labs. Now, though, he wasn’t sure if he could call it _that,_ either. Maybe it was “Stark Tower”, but it didn’t feel like _his_. It felt too cold and impersonal. Besides, Tony was hardly ever there, as he had basically moved into the Avengers Compound. That name felt wrong, too, because there sure as heck weren’t any Avengers there. Well, there was Vision, but an android wasn’t the same as a human being. Rhodey would come soon, but not until he was let out of the hospital. And there was Tony. Just Tony. How ironic that the man who once couldn’t get away from people, whether it be press or parties, was now aching with the lack of them? Tony had once been called ‘a man who has everything and nothing’. Those words rattled in his head now. The words of a dead man. That man was right. It had been almost nine years since the exchange, and the description still stood.

Tony could do something to fill the space. He could throw the party of the century and invite every notable person that would fit, even ones he’d never heard of. Anyone would come to a party with the Stark name attached, but he wouldn’t do it, and definitely not at the compound. Besides, Tony knew that it wouldn’t really fill the space. He had moved away from that lifestyle, anyway. Parties were less appealing now than they’d been years ago. Maybe he was getting too tired, or maybe, Tony thought with a bitter twitch of a half-smile, he was getting too old. He looked good for 46, but that was halfway through the average American’s life. There’s a statistic Tony wished his brain wouldn’t retain.

See, that was why he needed people around- to save him from his mid-life crisis.

Tony did his best to move on. Forget about Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton and all of his other friends. Forget about Pepper Potts. Sometimes he couldn’t. It was times like that which he became aware of the amount of alcohol that sat in cabinets and behind counters, and it all seemed to scream out to him at one time. He knew Pepper wouldn’t have appreciated him giving in, however, so he didn’t. Instead, Tony went to the high-tech labs at the Tower. When things got rough, he always went back to what he knew best. Tony messed around with mechanisms in a world where he could control the variables, and if he didn’t like the outcome, he could try again. He wished everything could be as easy as engineering as he tinkered with his latest machine. It wasn’t an Iron Man suit this time. Tony hardly wanted to look at the Iron Man, let alone improve it, at least for the time being. _Maybe Pepper would like me better this way_ , Tony thought sardonically.

Yes, Iron Man wasn’t the project this time. The 3-D hologram that now floated above Tony’s desk was a plan for exoskeletal legs. Tony had broken too many things in the past few days. It was time to fix something. As Rhodey’s friend, it was the least he could do. Tony found himself hoping it would work. If he couldn’t help Rhodey, then he’d have truly lost everything important. But doubts wouldn’t get a prototype done. Tony turned up his music and got to work, the Siberian cold still swirling in his core, almost like the phantom pains in his chest.

 

In the following weeks, Tony always focused himself on other things besides the fallout with the team. Any things. Whether it was helping Rhodey literally get back on his feet or something as simple as watching a good heist movie, Tony had to be occupied. Distracted, even. He avoided the Tower as often as possible and spent most of his time at the compound. The Captain even sent him a package there.

 _I’m glad you’re back at the Compound,_ Rogers wrote in a letter. _I don’t like the idea of you rattling around a mansion all by yourself._ Yeah, Tony didn’t like it either, but he wasn’t quite back at the compound. Not when so much of his work was at the Tower. _Maybe,_ Tony thought, _it’s time for that to change_. He pulled his phone out of his pocket.

“Happy? Yeah, hey, what are your thoughts on upstate New York?”

Tony was sure Happy would stick by him and help him out, like any true friend would. Rhodey would support the move, too, Tony knew. They had always been there for him, and they always would.

Rogers may have said “call me if you need me”, but Tony would never have to call Rhodey or Happy. They’d already be there, and he for them. After all, that’s what friends are for.

**Author's Note:**

> I know it's a little late for writing a Civil War fic, but I recently re-watched it and had to write something. Plus, I love Tony a whole lot and have been wanting to write a oneshot with him for a while. Figured I should get at least one done before Infinity War. 
> 
> So this oneshot is really inconsistent lol and I'm sorry. I think it reads like I didn't know what I wanted it to focus on and that's kinda true?? Idk I think the way it switches from Friendship to Tony Is Sad and Lonely is really choppy. I'm mostly concerned with characterization, though. I've been hesitant to write Tony for a long time in fear of totally screwing up his character. I know I didn't do well, but did I do at least a little okay?
> 
> Also, I tried my best to make it canon-compliant, but I'm not sure if the stuff with Stark Tower and the compound lines up. I got the idea that Tony wasn't always at the compound because at the end of CW, we saw that he drove his car there when he went to test the exoskeleton with Rhodey. I could definitely be wrong, though.
> 
> One more thing: I want to be very clear that this was NOT meant to bash Steve!! It was just meant to give some insight on what Tony could have been thinking & feeling after everything that happened in CW.
> 
> As any writer will tell you, any and all feedback is appreciated. Comments, kudos, whatever you please. :)


End file.
